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Asus Eee PC 900 Press Launch

This post is late. Nonetheless, last Monday’s Philippines Press Launch of the now much-talked about Asus Eee PC 900 was a pretty good success. Apart from the mainstream media outfits present, I was among the few bloggers who showed up to see what Asus had in store for the Philippine media and new media and how they would ‘sell’ the new Asus Eee PC 900 in the local market.

It was my first time to attend a press launch and I never thought it would be that big and almost very formal. Asides from the technical crew, I was among the very few who came to the Shangri-la Hotel dressed very, very casually with jeans and dirty skater-boy sneakers and all.

The program formally started at around 11am and it started off with a presentation of what Asus has become as an IT and computer computer company in the past couple of years.

The key point from the presentation is that Asus is no longer just a motherboard company, they are now more than just about manufacturing reliable motherboards, they are among the top computer companies in the world. All this thanks to the successful phenomenon that the Asus Eee PC line of ultra-mobile portable computers or UMPCs has created. With over a 1 million units sold in just 5 months, the Asus Eee PC brand is here to stay.

Can the Asus Eee PC 900, the wildly popular Eee PC 701’s bigger brother continue this joyous trend for Asus? From the sights, presentations, questions and answers I’ve come across during the press launch, it seems that Eee PC 900 is in a strong position to do so.

Inside the Eee PC 900

We’re all familiar with the specs of the new Eee PC 900 by now, but let’s recall anyways:

Techno mambo-jambo asides, the most talked about and most welcomed improvement in the Eee PC 900 is the bigger screen size of 8.9” supporting the standard 1024 x 600 resolution. No more constant side-scrolling to view a web page, image or document.

Another cool feature of the new Eee PC 900 is the FingerGlide touch/scroll pad which allows users to use two fingers in manipulating the Eee PC 900. You can zoom in to view pictures and stuff. A very nice touch indeed, so to speak.

A lifestyle device

A nine-inch compact (powder case)?

What was a noticeably dominant theme in the press launch was that the Eee PC 900 is marketed for ladies, teens and housewives. It’s just not a geek’s toy anymore, it is now being positioned as lifestyle device. Hence all the casual to stylish portrayal of the Eee PC 900 with female models ranging from school girls to young career women.

The great mobility offered by its exceptional portability is one of the strongest selling points of the Eee PC. Now that it runs on Windows XP natively, I suspect more people will buy it because Asus’ Regional Marketing Manager, Ethan Hung and the M$ Philippines’ Gen Manager Pepeng Rollan was right, if you want to introduce newcomers to computing, then Windows would be the most obvious choice.

Ultra-portable, great aesthetics, seamless wireless connectivity and a nice array of productivity and lifestyle suites, the Asus Eee PC 900 would be a good choice for those looking for a quick means of getting online and getting some work done while on the go.

So what’s the price tag of the Eee PC 900?

I earlier blogged about how the Eee PC 900 seems to be overpriced with some stores selling them at Php33,000! Of course we will still have to wait for official word from Asus and it was given last Monday, all of the Asus Eee PC 900’s nifty features wrapped in a compact package will cost you Php24,000.00 for both the 20GB Linux and 12GB Windows XP versions. Of course this is the suggested retail price by Asus so expect it to go up to around Php26,000 once retailers add-in their additional costs or if you upgrade the memory.

Still, it’s quite a good bargain if the Eee PC 900 fits your needs and preferences. So again, will I buy the Eee PC 900 now that I now it’s real SRP? Some of my blogging friends already know the answer and I’ll make it public in a few hours’ time. LOL

Congratulations to Asus for the successful launch of the Eee PC 900 and I’m sure that since the new school year is about to open, this baby will be among the top items in almost every student’s back-to-school shopping wish list. I thank Sir Yuga and First Tier Brands for the invite. Here’s the link to my photo set of the press launch and lastly, here’s a short video where Leah and Aldrin, Abe, Arnold, Eugene, Reggie, and Racquel (of PDI?) and myself finally had a chance to get our hands on the new Eee PC 900:

*The Eee PC 701 and Eee PC 900 looked almost identical we had a few moments of having problems distinguishing one from the other, hence Yuga’s sudden burst of a bad word. It was all unintended. 😛